The one dumpster data center: Practical lessons for construction sustainability

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Summary

The pressure is on to improve data center sustainability, and that is not going away. Data center builders and operators can improve sustainability in many ways beyond buying carbon offset credits for renewable energy.

Sustainability was a high-profile theme at Data Center World 2023 and the collocated Data Center BUILD conference, held in Austin, Texas, May 8–11, 2023. Of note were presentations from three industry veterans:

• Chris Crosby, CEO of Compass Datacenters (Compass)
• Phill Lawson-Shanks, Chief Innovation & Technology Officer at Aligned Data Centers
• Ben Stewart, Senior Vice President for Operations at NTT Globa Data Centers

This analyst opinion is another of three articles on these industry veterans’ pragmatic messages and practical lessons. In this installment, Omdia overviews Chris Crosby’s remarks and insights. The Further reading section below includes links to Omdia’s coverage of Phill Lawson-Shanks’ and Ben Stewart’s insights.

A Scope 4 approach to sustainability

Crosby provided the keynote for the “Data Center BUILD: Scope 4- The Missing Part of the Story.” The very core of Crosby’s message is embracing a data center design and construction approach that incorporates even small improvements in sustainable outcomes as soon as possible. Crosby suggests organizations must change their thinking; sustainability requires speed and long-term thinking.

Crosby’s notion of Scope 4 is a perspective on the many opportunities the data center industry has to make meaningful sustainability advances sooner rather than later. Scope 4 is all about unavoidable emissions. The primary goal is simply avoiding emissions because of sustainable decision-making by way of:

• New methods of materials production
• Innovative approaches to construction and operations
• Using technology to drive carbon reduction efforts
• Optimizing designs for efficiency and sustainability

Some of the specific aspects of Crosby’s Scope 4 concept include the following:

• No greenwashing or pre-established goals that can only be accomplished by buying carbon offset credits
• Advancing these efforts should be a continuous process
• Measuring the impact of sustainability-based decisions
• Tracking organizational progress and benchmarking against the industry
• Organized effectively, it should provide a productive platform for sharing what works with others in the industry

The Compass Datacenters approach includes four basic elements:

• Means and methods
  • How to approach construction projects or facility operations with sustainability, including how performance is quantified and reported
  • Establishing goal-related initiatives with specific objectives such as reduced labor, less waste, faster delivery, or streamlined processes
• Technology
  • Using new technologies for construction materials, production, offsite optimization, reduction or elimination materials, and optimized transportation
• Product selection
  • Sustainably-based selection criteria, including components with sustainable features that don’t require onsite modification
• Design
  • Sustainability-optimized designs, including integration into the surrounding environment
  • Reduce or eliminate the need for water through closed-loop systems or airside economization
  • Using 100% green power wherever available

Crosby detailed many practical examples of changes Compass has made to purchasing and processes that resulted in sustainability wins.

An important part of this Scope 4 approach is purchasing construction materials that are more sustainable to manufacture and install, take less labor or transportation, create less waste, and deliver results faster. All of which result in lower greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Examples on the product selection side of the equation include using heat-reflecting roofing, high-density polyethylene (HDPE) pipe instead of reinforced concrete (RCP) pipe, fiber-reinforced polymer (FRP) instead of steel rebar, hydrotreated vegetable oil (HVO) instead of diesel fuel, and green transformers with FR3 (a more sustainable alternative than mineral oil).

Crosby also argues there is an epidemic of short-term thinking. One of the key characteristics of sustainability is the longevity of what is being built. If choosing roofing construction materials with a 15-year useful life, updating that roof over and over again is inevitable. While more expensive, choosing roofing construction that has the potential to last 100 years is what true sustainable decision-making is all about—mitigating the carbon from roofing material replacement multiple times during the useful life of a building.

On the process side, one of the examples Crosby cited was installing a concrete mixing plant on site. Some data center construction projects may not have a mixing plant nearby, so installing one onsite saves on the cost of long-distance concrete truck hauls and its associated carbon emissions with the added benefit of scheduling control.

Another part of planning any project is managing construction materials onsite. Once construction materials are delivered, they must be moved around multiple times before they are used because there is no specific plan. All the materials movement takes time and effort and has a carbon cost. A thorough plan for onsite materials management will save on costs and is a sustainability win.

“The one dumpster data center” is a noteworthy Compass sustainability success Crosby detailed during his talk. One sustainability goal should be sending zero waste to landfills. The goal is to eliminate as much construction waste materials that have nowhere to go but a landfill. This requires meticulous planning, repurposing, and recycling. The success is a data center construction project that resulted in only one dumpster of data center landfill-bound construction waste.

There is so much opportunity for improvement in so many areas. Still, much of the data center construction industry operates business as usual, where cost and time to market are the goal, which Crosby argues is a misguided perspective.

Next steps in the journey

Like many things in the data center and IT industries, sustainability is not a new concept. It is in its infancy and has a long way to go before becoming a mature discipline. Rest assured, the subject is not going away for generations to come.

For readers early in their sustainability journey, the Further reading features additional highlight resources that cover some of the interesting or debatable subjects regarding sustainability. In addition, at Data Center World, AFCOM (Informa Group’s Association for Computer Operations Management) held a Leaders Lab workshop on data center sustainability. The event was an all-afternoon roundtable discussion regarding current trends and issues surrounding data center sustainability practices. The 14 attendees comprised various roles within the data center industry, including CIOs, CEOs, and CROs from a combination of colocation operators, investment firms, construction companies, hyperscalers, and more. The Further reading also includes the “Leaders Lab Executive Summary” link.

Appendix

Further reading

“‘It’s not rocket science’: Moving beyond renewable offsets” (September 2023)

“Sustainability used to be about a good story: ‘It’s not that way anymore, folks’” (September 2023)

“2023 Leaders Lab Executive Summary” (August 2023)

“Analyst Call: Data Center Computing for AI and Sustainability” (August 2023)

“Nuclear data centers: Public perception improves for nuclear power, but headwinds persist” (July 2023)

“DCD Silicon Valley 2023: Hydrogen versus nuclear power” (July 2023)

United States Environmental Protection Agency, “US EPA Guide to Purchasing Green Power” (retrieved August 25, 2023)

United States Environmental Protection Agency, “US EPA Sources of Greenhouse Gas Emissions” (retrieved August 25, 2023)

Author

Alan Howard, Principal Analyst, Cloud & Data Center Research Practice

[email protected]